Beginning a series of primer mixes that hopefully looks beyond the Greatest Hits*, I offer up a Clash / Joe Strummer Mix
for download
*Admittedly at least half this mix can be found on major hits compilations but as there will likely follow at least one more Clash/Strummer primer it ranks as a low sin.
Future primers will include Julian Cope, Lee Hazelwood, Frank Sinatra, PJ Harvey...
if anyone cares to place together a Fall or a Pixies/Frank Black Primer they'll earn a gold star me.

CLASH STRUMMER PRIMER PART ONE (45 Minutes)

1. JOE STRUMMER - PUNK ROCK WARLORD - INTERVIEW EXCERPT (THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN SOUNDTRACK 2007)'...punk rock warlord - warlord one word'2. THE CLASH - WHITE MAN IN HAMMERSMITH PALAIS (SINGLE 1978)'The new groups are not concerned/With what there is to be learned/They got Burton suits, ha you think it's funny
/Turning rebellion into money.'3. THE CLASH - STRAIGHT TO HELL (COMBAT ROCK 1982)'Y'wanna join in a chorus/Of the Amerasian blues?/When it's Christmas out in Ho Chi Minh City/Kiddie say papa papa papa papa-san take me home/See me got photo photo/Photograph of you/Mamma Mamma Mamma-san/Of you and Mamma Mamma Mamma-san/Lemme tell ya 'bout your blood bamboo kid.It ain't Coca-Cola it's rice.'4. THE CLASH - WASHINGTON BULLETS (SANDINISTA 1980)
'And in the Bay of Pigs in 1961/Havana fought the playboy in the Cuban sun/For Castro is a colour,
Is a redder than red/Those Washington bullets want Castro dead/For Castro is the colour...
...That will earn you a spray of lead.'5. JOE STRUMMER & THE MESCALAROS - TONY ADAMS (ROCK ART & THE X-RAY STYLE 1999)'I'm lost in a world beyond the lost city/I'm looking for a phone and I cant find one/Gotta Tony Bennett eight track in the hotel pity/The moon turned around and shot someone/I'm lost in a mack truck, Jack, in the city of words/Only dead men stomp on the brake pedals in the city of nerves/Sow me some reaps, Jack, I'm dead on the heap/Show me some glycerine, Mac, downhill is so steep.'6. THE CLASH - BANKROBBER (SINGLE 1980)'Someday you'll meet your rockin chair/Cause that's where we're spinnin/There's no point to want to comb your hair/
When its grey and thinin'7. THE CLASH - I FOUGHT THE LAW (THE COST OF LIVING EP 1979)Lyrics: Bobby Fuller8. THE CLASH - SAFE EUROPEAN HOME (GIVE 'EM ENOUGH ROPE 1978)
'Wasn't i lucky n' wouldn't it be loverly?/Send us all cards, an' have a laying in on a Sunday/I was there for two weeks, so how come i never tell/That Natty Dread drinks at the sheraton hotel?'9. THE CLASH - RUDIE CAN’T FAIL (LONDON CALLING 1979)
'How you get a rude and a reckless?/Don't you be so crude and a feckless/You been drinking brew for breakfast
/Rudie can't fail.'10. THE CLASH - SPANISH BOMBS (LONDON CALLING 1979) 'The hillsides ring with "Free the people"/Or can I hear the echo from the days of '39?/
With trenches full of poets/The ragged army, fixin' bayonets to fight the other line/Spanish bombs rock the province/I'm hearing music from another time/Spanish bombs on the Costa Brava/I'm flying in on a DC 10 tonight'11. JOE STRUMMER - LEOPARDSKIN LIMOUSINES (EARTHQUAKE WEATHER 1989)'With me, it'd be Charlie Parker, Chevys/And late night barroom brawls/With real or imaginary friends and enemies/Who strike their heads when they fall/On the chassis of a classic Bull Nose special/That adorned our livingroom wall/Nobody'd be disappointed, if you're the one they wanted/Blazing out across the waterfall.'12. JOE STRUMMER & THE MESCALAROS - X-RAY STYLE (ROCK ART & THE X-RAY STYLE 1999)'I hear a payphone ringing out on murder mile/The sucker who picks up gets his number dialled/And all the sparkling waters that ever flowed/Could never wash down this town so clean that it glowed/And I need to see in an x-ray style
/I need some rock art that don't come in a vial/Can anybody feel the distance to the Nile/I wanna live and I wanna dance awhile.' 13. JOE STRUMMER - LATIN ROMANCE EDIT (WALKER SOUNDTRACK 1987)InstrumentalDOWNLOAD HERE:http://www.mediafire.com/?jfy57pvub2wewnr

Best of February Mix
Rules of mixtape:
All songs must be new or new to me across the month.
Exception to the rules, each side is allowed one song that to paraphrase the Big Lebowski 'ties the mix together.' Roots being this month's 'rug'.

Missing-Hour-Mix
Just finished a new mix, relatively downbeat yet at all points upful, it's unhurried and uncluttered, best I reckon listened to at sunrise or sundown, as in's a dedication to last night's lost hour this one runs for sixty minutes.
Pick it up herehttp://akimbodivine.wordpress.com/mixes/

non-stop rotation at Drock Productions for The High Llamas and their new LP "Talahomi Way". perfect orchestral pop. no other modern band is comparable for the detail of orchestrations and diversity of instrumentation. got it on Record Store Day and must have listened to it night on 30 times in the week and a half since...
btw their touring UK (inc. ggow) in May...!!

"If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all." --John Cage.

The mix initiates with some high pomp, seamlessly slides into the sublime, has a brief discordant interlude, changing up from classical to electronic, takes a two step tango into the ridiculous with the entrance of Piero Umiliani* only to be outtrumped as Ennio raises the batshit bar with 'Run Man Run' and finishes with a decompression suite that trips you back into the sublime.
Thirty–one to come...

1. Gridlock(Instrumental)2. London Girl“﻿When the cold winds come to find you /Blowing down from the top of the high rise
I'll come and take you back down to Soho/ Away from all those mad men's eyes “3. Rain Street﻿'There's a TESCO on the sacred ground /Where I pulled her knickers down
While Judas took his measly price /And St Anthony gazed in awe at Christ’4. Sit Down By The Fire‘﻿Remember this place /It is damp and it's cold
The best place on earth/But it's dark and it's old
So lie near the wallAnd cover your head
Good night and God bless/Now fuck off to bed’5. Boat Train‘﻿I had a couple of drinks in town /A few more at the port
I puked up on the gangway/ But some kind folks helped me board
They helped me to a table/Poured whiskey down my throat
They sat me at a table /And I lost my watch and coat'6. Broad Majestic Shannon‘﻿The last time I saw you was down at the Greeks
There was whiskey on Sunday and tears on our cheeks
You sang me a song as pure as the breeze
Blowing up the road to Glenaveigh
I sat for a while at the cross at Finnoe
Where young lovers would meet when the flowers were in bloom
Heard the men coming home from the fair at Shinrone
Their hearts in Tipperary wherever they go’7. Body Of An American‘The Cadillac stood by the house And the yanks they were within
And the tinker boys they hissed advice/'Hot-wire her with a pin'
We turned and shook as we had a look /In the room where the dead men lay
So big Jim Dwyer made his last trip/To the home where his father's laid 8. USA‘﻿I took the cold bright needle/I used it as a sword
My eyes have seen the glory/Of the coming of the Lord
I burned across the delta/I swam across the ford
My eyes have seen the glory/ of the coming of the Lord’9. Thousands Are Sailing‘﻿Then we said goodnight to Broadway/ Giving it our best regards
Tipped our hats to Mister cohen/Dear old Times Square's favourite bard
Then we raised a glass to JFK/ And a dozen more besides
When I got back to my empty room /I suppose I must have cried’10. Sick Bed Of Cuchalinn‘When you pissed yourself in Frankfurt/And got syph down in Cologne
And you heard the rattling death trains/As you lay there all alone
Frank Ryan brought you whiskey/In a brothel in Madrid
And you decked some fucking Blackshirt/Who was cursing all the yids
At the sick bed of Cuchulainn/We'll kneel and say a prayer
And the ghosts are rattling at the door/And the devil's in the chair.'11. Streams Of Whiskey '﻿Oh the words that he spoke/Seemed the wisest of philosophies
There's nothing ever gained/By a wet thing called a tear
When the world is too dark/And I need the light inside of me
I'll walk into a bar/And drink fifteen pints of beer.'12. Dark Streets Of London'Every time that I look on the first day of Summer.
Takes me back to the place where they gave me E.C.T.
And the drugged up psychos
With death in their eyes
And how all of this really
Means nothing to me.'13. Rainy Night In Soho﻿Now the song is nearly over/We may never find out what it means
Still there's a light I hold before me/And you're the measure of my dreams
The measure of my dreams.Download Here: http://www.mediafire.com/?5y7ehshrsc7s72d

Also:
And everybody should be checkingShabazz Palaces – Black Up (2011) -- Obscure Sound
Hands down best hip hop album since Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage’s Be A Man.
Seek it out.

Tracklistingintro: Andy Kershaw1. Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train)‘﻿She stayed with me until she moved to Notting Hill
She said it was the place she needs to be
Where the cocaine is Fairtrade and frequently displayed
Is the Buena Vista Social Club CD’2. Surging Out Of Convalescence‘The inside of a Halex Three-Star table-tennis ball
Smells much like you’d expect it to’3. For What’s Chatteris‘﻿One way system – smooth and commendable
Go by bus – they’re highly dependable
The swings in the park for the kids have won awards
The clean streets acknowledged in the Lords
But what’s a park if you can’t see a linnet?
A timetable if your journey’s infinite?
My bag’s packed and I’m leaving in a minute
For what is Chatteris without you in it?'4. Tending The Wrong Grave For 24 Years‘﻿Curse those in charge of plots
Curse these forget-me-nots
I’ve been sharing my innermost thoughts with an Edward McCrae
I’m inconsolable and at times uncontrollable
Ah but she wouldn’t know ‘cos she’s two hundred metres away
Let’s complain…’5. Restless Legs﻿'Four o-six and I’m wide awake
Got an uncontrollable urge to take
A five mile hike around the Ogwen Lake
Stretch these restless legs’6. Evening Of Swing Has Been Cancelled‘And a plague fell upon the Retail Park
And a storm broke over Henman Hill
And the christening party arsehole
Who hitherto had blurred
My conception of man as nature’s final word
Was fleeing from the lava
His SatNav pleading thus:
“I’m not from round here mate, you should have got the bus”7. A Country Practice‘﻿Opinionated weather forecasters telling me it’s going to be a miserable day
Miserable to who? I quite like a bit of drizzle, so stick to the facts.’8. Four Skinny Indie Kids‘﻿We’ve got lo-fi, we’ve got tie-dye
We’ve got grey and brown and black
We’ve got stickers on guitars
We’ve got a tape for Steve Lamacq
We’ve got celibate lead singers
We’ve got Sebadoh’s and Docs
But what ain’t we got?
We ain’t got mates’9. 4AD3DCD‘﻿I dream of occasional fanzine mentions
I’ve been to one too many David Lynch Conventions
I play postal chess with a man who doesn’t know me
I’ve got a better frown than Tony Iommi
And I’ve got a 4AD3DCD
A 4AD3DCD
A 4AD3DCD
And I’m on a foundation course.;10. Bad Losers On Yahoo Chess‘﻿Checkmate!
Dennis Bell of Torquay
Too late
With your Nxe3
Good game sir
Do you want another bout?
Well Dennis ain’t replying
‘cos he just signed out
Bad losers on Yahoo Chess.’11. Nationional Shite Day‘I try to put everything into perspective
Set it against the scale of human suffering
And I thought of the Mugabe government
And the children of the Calcutta railways
This works for a while
But then I encounter Primark FM
Overhead a rainbow appears
In black and white’12. Twenty Four Hour Garage People﻿'Because you gotta get up off your fat arse to go and get my crisps and you gotta go around the counter and it’s really inconvenient; and when you come back, you toss them into that sliding metal tray device thing that separates us and you say: “One pound thirty-five”, as opposed to: “That’ll be one pound thirty-five please, sir”. This is of course done to annoy me but has the opposite effect of amusing me no end, because suddenly I’ve got other things to buy…'13. Turn A Blind Eye‘﻿They came for the Charles Manson fans, but I wasn’t a Charles Manson fan so I did nothing
They came for the reflexologists, but I wasn’t a reflexologist so I did nothing
They came for the camp TV chefs, but I wasn’t a camp TV chef so I did nothing
They came for the RoMos, I laughed.’14. Vatican Broadside‘﻿The singer out of Slipknot went to Rome to see the Pope
The singer out of Slipknot went to Rome to see the Pope
The singer out of Slipknot went to Rome to see the Pope
And the Pope said to his aide:’15. Visitor For Mr Edmonds(No lyrics)

Tonight got me to wondering what the perfect arc for a mix is, I usually opt for the flight pattern, lift off, ascend, cruise, descend, land, go out fast, come back slow,, but maybe it should be the boom/bust/repeat model of the peaks and troughs of a Toblerone, or you might employ Muhammad Ali’s rope a dope, lure into a false sense of lull and burst out with knockout blows.
This mix is made with the upcoming Kelburn Festival in mind, the material acting as counterpoint to the bands on the bill, if someone gives you the full run of a soundsystem then there aint no sense in playing Donovan.
It’s fresh territory for me and thus falls under a new name.
This, then is my inaugural mix under the banner‘Sound﻿–Sy﻿–Stem﻿–Cell﻿–Research﻿–PLC'
(My Most Modernist (Mo–Mo) imprint, try to imagine that name as logo in Stymie Bold Italic.)
Oh and the arc of this particular mix follows the five classic stages of griefDenial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, APOCALYPSE.
Disclaimer: it was not designed with good taste in mind.
Enjoy the din:I Don’t Take A Life, I Bury A Soul Mix (45 Minutes)Download Here:http://www.mediafire.com/?4ye8kl1b96k76tkTracklisting1. Calvertron ﻿– Future Proof
2. Downlink ﻿– Factory
3. Helicopter Showdown ﻿– A Hot One
4. Golden Boy Feat. Miss Kitten ﻿– Rippin Kittin
5. Feed Me ﻿– Green Bott﻿le
6. Mochipet vs. Devo ﻿– Whip It (Nitrous Oxide Mix)
7. Zed Dead ﻿– Dovregubben (Original Mix)
8. Bare & Datsik ﻿– King Kong
9. Rick James ﻿– Superfreak (Distructo Remix)
10. Doctor P ﻿– Tetris
11. Hostage ﻿– Witches
12. Rednek ﻿– Game Over

For some reason I can't download the half man half biscuit mix, it just seems to take me to a mediafire front page. Loving the mixes Dai. I'm too lazy to find new music for myself, so a god source of mixes is always welcome. Here are some others I've been listening to:

My Mouth Works Wonders Mix 45 Minutes)
‘Cos the Tyler (putting the angst back into gangsta) The Creator album failed to deliver, from which I’m still reeling, here’s 45 minutes clipped from the current crop of hiphop, all I believe, breed of 2011.
Pulse taken, results returned, indeed the scene seems to be in braw health,
PS I've limited Tyler, the best looking man since Sid Vicious to a single verse and I’ve even included a slow jam.

Also, I saw Shonen Knife last week and have been listening to them before, during and after. Loads and loads. They describe themselves as "oo-oo-ultra-eccentric-super-cult-punk-pop-band-shonen-knife!" and they play at many bpm and they are also a Ramones cover band callled the Osaka Ramones. They may actually be perfect.

At least a season adrift with this mix, ahh well, aint no sin in such escapism, besides who am I kidding I can’t even swim save alone surf, I’m chuffed to fit Welsh band Y Niwl (The Fog) into the mix, elsewhere, an also plus added boon comes via Edinburgh’s homegrown The Valves splashing some local colour while gifting me a title.

Mystery DaiCast #1 (45 Minutes)
A Mystery Daicast for you placed together after a vivid dream of hometown,
I would pair it with a walk, the dusk, a bottle, disused industry and derelict landscapes.
Enjoy.
(Tracklisting upon request)
45 Minutes
Download Herehttp://www.mediafire.com/?fc5kd4xquv4g9l1

"Wee have also Sound-houses, wher we practise and demonstrate all Sounds, and the Generation. Wee have harmonies which you have not, of Quarter-Sounds, and lesser Slides of Sounds. Diverse Instruments of Musick likewise to you unknowne, some sweeter than any you have; Together with Bells and Rings that are dainty and sweet. Wee represent Small Sounds as well as Great and Deepe; Likewise Great Sounds, Extenuate and Sharpe; Wee make diverse Tremblings and Warblings of Sounds, which in their Originalle are Entire. Wee represent and imitate all Articulate Sounds and Letters, and the Voices and Notes of Beasts and Birds. Wee have certain Helps, which sett to the Eare doe further the Hearing greatly. Wee have also diverse Strange and Artificiall Echos's, Reflecting the Voice many times, and as it were Tossing it: And some that give back the Voice lowder than it come, some Shriller, some Deeper; Yea some rendering the Voice, Differing in the letters or Articulate Sound, from that they receyve, Wee have also means to convey Sounds in Trunks and Pipes, in strange Lines, and Distances."
- Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis, 1624

Well,
competition was both strong and nonsensical,
(these two attributes correlated tight in my marking scheme)
further added points were awarded for folk who blew out on the 'no more than 15 words or more' ruling
and kudos assigned to multiple entires,
however, I failed to include the caveat that
'Competitions are not open to employees or family members of the Forest or Alien Dave'
which reduced the sum of valid entries to naught.
Let the hands fly up and the words, fix, farce and arse fling out
but way as apology here's a brand new doozy of a mix for all competitors

GUNSHOT MEANS REWIND MIX (45 MINS)

This week it was my intention to place together a Frank Sinatra mix, a compilation comprised of his live work, all of the definitive readings are cut across the live albums, but the treats are the ad libs, and the hackneyed wisecracks, and of course complete control of environment.
However.
However big Frank’s band were, and whatever arrangement Nelson Riddle brought to the orchestra
none could out drown the sound of my roommate’s snoring.
And so I had to scrap the mix and start a fresh tack, and work on an altogether noisier concern to take and tangle with the sound of what might be described as the death rattle of Mr Snufflupagus.
The mix then kicks in with some scatterbeat techno, finds a groove, loses its shit, bugs out, thugs out, talks coarse and returns to source, when the ladies grace the mic, they fem mcs show pottymouthed and hard. but I suspect even Frank secretly liked a dame who could talk good toilet.
Anyway, some lullaby

Arriving back from Budapest very little had changed save my flatmate secured an internet connection, curious for a boy with such a heavy habit I've never lived anywhere with an internet connection. The skip over to the live side of the digital divide was shortlived and quickly shitcanned as I exceeded the bandwith limit inside a week, but those seven days were quietly productive putting the groundwork down on a slew of projects.
Also I completed two new mixes
- True To The Trail Mix (45 minutes)
- Slaughterhouse Jazz Mix (45 Minute)
The first mix was gonna be a straight, Americana country mix, unhurried, uncluttered, happy and at ease to loiter but as the plains opened up, it began to swing wildly, the unforseen gripped the wheel, the satnav roundly ignored, the mix began to oscillate keening in on red-thread salients such as call & response, fuzz & scuzz, choirs & percussion, ending up at an altogether sexier destination, I had no business in Nashville anyway, least not until I get some new shoes.
The mix seen as a whole takes the structural arc of Guns N' Roses' November Rain, as any mix of greatness should.
I trust you understand.
The second mix is a direct sibling and very much rivals its blood kin, laid together they are the Cain and Abel of the C90.
(Coming soon via an internet connection near me - Slaughterhouse Jazz)
Tonight's Main Feature.